Ofcom Silent Calls RegulationNEW REGULATIONS CAN PUT YOUR CONTACT CENTRE OUT OF COMPLIANCE
MAY 17, 2011
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Speakers
Jim CaseyHead of Contact Centre PracticeCirquent Ltd.t. +44 (0) 203 217 1360e. [email protected]
Frederic DickeyDirector of Product ManagementSangoma Technologiest. +1 514 288 7111 x 233e. [email protected]
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Agenda
Introduction Details about the new regulations The potential impact of these regulations on your operation and your
business Design and process analysis issues that can affect your solution Details of a solution that meet the new requirements with minimal
impact on your operation Closing Q&A
Ofcom Silent Calls PolicyJim CaseyContact Centre Line of Business HeadCirquent UK
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What Does This Mean to My Operation?
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Recent Trends in Outbound Calling
Move to smaller campaign groups
Higher use of ‘immediate call’ dialling Call back from queue Call back from web
Companies instigating on the fly ‘Do Not Call’
Integrated Marketing approach
Changes to the global telecoms infrastructure and the devices people are using
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Achieving OFCOM Policy Compliance
OFCO
M
Polic
y Co
mpl
ianc
e Operational Improvements
Human Intervention
Technology Intervention
The significant increase in penalties combined with a more stringent policing of UK outbound environments reflects Ofcom’s considerable concerns in this area.
The enforcement action taken by Ofcom presents an immeasurable threat to outbound business operations and should therefore be taken very seriously.
The long accepted phrase of ‘business as usual’ will no longer apply, there are no shortcuts or easy ways around this regulatory stance.
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Getting the Basics Right
• Supervisors need to be properly trained• Agents need to understand the impact of bad behaviour• Processes and procedures are in place for acting on customer
feedback
Staff and Training
• Senior executives need to understand cause and effect• Supervisors and team leaders need to take an active role• Workforce Management tools work in an outbound environment• Blended environments need to be actively managed
Management
• Everybody understands the KPIs• They are measured and reported frequently• KPIs become engrained in the company culture• Infringements of the silent calls policy are reported and investigated
Measurement
Operational Improvements
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Human Intervention
• Plan to take longer to achieve the required results• Minimise time that affects the dialler pacing accuracy• When reporting on a campaign - also report on how the
dialler pace was configured
Actively slow down the pace
• Higher dependency on preview and auto-dial modes• Choose a dynamics dialling mode based on list
performance
Choose a less productive dialler mode
• Dedicate teams as standby in case • Blend Outbound calling with back office tasks
Dedicated resources
Human Intervention
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Technology InterventionTechnology Intervention
• Make sure your dialler technology is current, supported and patched• Allow the (trained) supervisors access to parameters for optimisation• Create custom tools that make supervisors’ jobs easier
Active Configuration Management
• Choose dialler technology that is flexible in a blended environment• Move to a faster switching medium• Combine like campaigns and share an agent group• Design latency out of the solution• Choose a solution that enables missed calls to be handled professionally
Invest in a Modern, Integrated Dialler
• Don’t rely on old technology for CPA (Call Progress Analysis)• Make sure CPA is optimised for the modern communications protocols• Investigate quickly why a call was misclassified• Actively manage the answering machine process
Call Progress Analysis
Leveraging Superior Call Progress Analysis Technology for Outbound ComplianceFrederic DickeyDirector Product [email protected]
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Dedicated Platform to Perform Call Progress Analysis (CPA) for Outbound Contact Centres Classifies calls to maximize productivity Reports pre-connect and post-connect (live answer,
answering machine, busy, etc.) Implements Unique Patent Pending CPA Algorithms
Best Accuracy Best Speed of Response
Integrates directly with VoIP and SIP Contact Centres Interop with over 30 VoIP and SIP Endpoints (including
Genesys SIP Server)
Introduction to Sangoma NetBorder Call Analyzer (NCA)
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Sangoma NCA in the Call Centre
VoIPGateway
Call Centre Suite
SangomaNCA
SIP SIP E1/T1
Dialling to PSTN
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Sangoma NCA in the Call Centre
VoIPGateway
Call Centre Suite
SangomaNCA
SIP SIP E1/T1
Dialling to PSTN
Dialling to SIP TrunksCall Centre
SuiteSangoma
NCASIP SIP SIP TrunkSession
Border Controller
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Sangoma NCA in the Call Centre
VoIPGateway
Call Centre Suite
SangomaNCA
SIP SIP E1/T1
Dialling to PSTN
Dialling to SIP TrunksCall Centre
SuiteSangoma
NCASIP SIP SIP TrunkSession
Border Controller
NCA performs:• Call Progress Analysis• Reports Results to Dialler via SIP Interface
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We humans are very good at CPA, we know if a call is live, voice mail, busy, etc. We never really fail at this when we place a call
To replicate this on a computer, you build Neural Networks based on Statistical Models In other words, you design a specialized CPA machine Create a model, send calls though it, check results, train,
repeat
NetBorder CPA Engine: Unique Approach
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We humans are very good at CPA, we know if a call is live, voice mail, busy, etc. We never really fail at this when we place a call
To replicate this on a computer, you build Neural Networks based on Statistical Models In other words, you design a specialized CPA machine Create a model, send calls though it, check results, train,
repeat
NetBorder CPA Engine: Unique Approach
PATENT PENDING
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NetBorder CPA Engine: Modeling Process
Outbound Campaign
ProductTrainingAnnotation
Recordingand
CDRsAnnotated
Files Data Set
Benchmark
Sangoma has a training dataset of 5000 live recordings to businesses, residences and mobile phones (including music ring back tones)
Excellent overall out-of-the-box performance Does not require additional training or tuning, requires threshold
and confidence measures parameter settings; Tm (AMD) and Th (Live) parameters
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Benchmarking NCA vs. Other TechnologiesAc
cura
cy
NCA Threshold Configuration Values
Avg.
Res
pons
e Ti
me
(Sec
onds
)
AMD Threshold
LiveThreshold
94%
80%
0.40
0.63
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
79%
81%
83%
85%
87%
89%
91%
93%
95%
0.7
/ 0.7
0.7
/ 0.7
5
0.7
/ 0.8
0.7
/ 0.8
5
0.7
/ 0.9
0.7
/ 0.9
5
0.75
/ 0.
75
0.75
/ 0.
8
0.75
/ 0.
85
0.75
/ 0.
9
0.75
/ 0.
95
0.8
/ 0.8
0.8
/ 0.8
5
0.8
/ 0.9
0.8
/ 0.9
5
Oth
er D
SP
0.85
/ 0.
85
0.85
/ 0.
9
0.85
/ 0.
95
0.9
/ 0.9
0.9
/ 0.8
0.9
/ 0.9
5
0.95
/ 0.
95
Overall Accuracy Avg Response Time 50% Live / 50% Answering Machines
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Sangoma NCA Threshold Settings and Confidence Measures (Illustrated)
Probability of Human
“Hello”Recording
T=0.7 T=0.9
T=0.95
337 ms
689 ms
1210 ms
Probability of Answering Machine
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Accuracy data not inflated with easy to detect pre-connect conditions (such as busy)
Benchmarking concentrates on Answered Calls NetBorder CPA is more accurate
Reduces Silent Calls (AMD False Positive) NetBorder CPA is faster
More time for call centre software to route to an agent Customers less likely to hang up on you
Works out-of-the-box — no tuning Threshold configurations provide flexibility in deployments
Benchmarking Summary
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Sangoma NCA Thresholds and Ofcom:Maximize Live Answer Accuracy
Accu
racy
NCA Threshold Configuration (Th / Tm)
Avg.
Res
pons
e Ti
me
(Sec
onds
)
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
89%
90%
91%
92%
93%
94%
95%
96%
97%
0.7
/ 0.7
0.7
/ 0.7
5
0.7
/ 0.8
0.7
/ 0.8
5
0.7
/ 0.9
0.7
/ 0.9
5
0.75
/ 0.
75
0.75
/ 0.
8
0.75
/ 0.
85
0.75
/ 0.
9
0.75
/ 0.
95
0.8
/ 0.8
0.8
/ 0.8
5
0.8
/ 0.9
0.8
/ 0.9
5
0.85
/ 0.
85
0.85
/ 0.
9
0.85
/ 0.
95
0.9
/ 0.9
0.9
/ 0.8
0.9
/ 0.9
5
0.95
/ 0.
95
Live Answer Accuracy Overall Accuracy Answering Machine Accuracy Avg Response Time
50% Live / 50% Answering Machines
AMD Threshold
LiveThreshold
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Sangoma NCA Thresholds and Ofcom:Maximize Live Answer Accuracy
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
89%
90%
91%
92%
93%
94%
95%
96%
97%
0.7
/ 0.7
0.7
/ 0.7
5
0.7
/ 0.8
0.7
/ 0.8
5
0.7
/ 0.9
0.7
/ 0.9
5
0.75
/ 0.
75
0.75
/ 0.
8
0.75
/ 0.
85
0.75
/ 0.
9
0.75
/ 0.
95
0.8
/ 0.8
0.8
/ 0.8
5
0.8
/ 0.9
0.8
/ 0.9
5
0.85
/ 0.
85
0.85
/ 0.
9
0.85
/ 0.
95
0.9
/ 0.9
0.9
/ 0.8
0.9
/ 0.9
5
0.95
/ 0.
95
Live Answer Accuracy Overall Accuracy Answering Machine Accuracy Avg Response Time
50% Live / 50% Answering Machines
DefaultUK Offcom
AMD Threshold
LiveThreshold
Accu
racy
NCA Threshold Configuration (Th / Tm)
Avg.
Res
pons
e Ti
me
(Sec
onds
)
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NetBorder Call Analyzer CPA model can be configured to favour certain results
This is done via Threshold parameters settings Th: influences live answer results Tm: influences answering machine results
The higher the values, the longer the model takes to reach a result (and make less errors)
The lower the values, the more aggressive it is going to be (and make more errors)
Find the right balance of accuracy vs. response time for your operating constraints
Sangoma NCA Thresholds and Ofcom:Maximize Live Answer Accuracy
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Rolling Statistics (CPA-STATS.CSV file) Time stamps, CPA results
Built-in Trunk Side Call Recorder Recorded on WAV files Filenames follow Call-id in CPA-STATS Turn on or off as required
Combine both for periodical performance analysis
Other Features:Built-in Management and Reporting
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Accuracy Minimize AMD False Positives Minimize Silent Calls
Speed of Classification Connect Agent within 2 seconds facilitated Minimize Dropped Calls
Threshold Settings Optimize performance for Ofcom regulations No need for costly tuning consultation engagements
Statistical Data Reporting and Trunk Side Recording Facilitates Periodical quality benchmarking
Sangoma NCA and Ofcom Compliance
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For More Information
Read the whitepaper here: http://www.sangoma.com/resources/whitepapers/cirquent.html
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Get in Touch!
http://bettercrm.org/resources/collateral.shtmlTwitter.com/Cirquent_cloud
Youtube.com/CirquentMarketing
http://bettercrm.org
http://cirquent.co.uk
http://www.linkedin.com/company/cirquent-ntt-data-group
Q&A and Thank You
Jim Casey – CirquentFrederic Dickey – SangomaMatthew Chapman - Ofcom